June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Alberta crop and livestock producers
may suffer losses from floods affecting parts of the Canadian
province, although officials won’t know the extent of damage
until waters recede, Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson said.

Initial reports suggest that most of the damage is isolated
to areas along river banks and creeks, Olson said in a telephone
interview from Edmonton today. The flooding has forced some
producers to move livestock to higher ground, he said.

Alberta is home to 40 percent of Canada’s cattle herds and
is also a grower of wheat and canola, among other crops, data
show. Eighty-five percent of crops in the western province were
rated in good or excellent condition as of June 18, prior to
flooding, the agriculture ministry said in a report yesterday.

Officials are monitoring the integrity of dams used for
farm irrigation, Olson said. More water is expected to reach
agricultural land near the city of Medicine Hat tomorrow
afternoon from the South Saskatchewan River.

Communities in southern Alberta experienced heavy rainfall
beginning on June 19 and some 75,000 residents of Calgary, the
province’s largest city, were evacuated. Three deaths have been
reported outside of the metropolitan area.

Water on the Elbow River late on June 20 was flowing more
than three times faster than during a 2005 flood that damaged
40,000 homes, Alberta Premier Alison Redford told reporters
yesterday.